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tv   Nightline  ABC  May 12, 2011 11:35pm-12:00am EDT

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tonight on "nightline" -- kiddie bo tox. this mom's revelation that she gave cosmetic injections to this little girl sparked an internet sensation. and a child protective services investigation. so how does mom explain it? >> it's like we're in the pageant world -- >> and the shocking inside story. the angry chef. he strides the room on a culinary quest. where few chefs bear to tread. but now is no reservations host anthony bordain going soft? and he was the christian conservative senator who took up
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with the wife of his closest aide. now, the report detailing hotel room trysts. good evening. i'm bill weir. the dream of eternal youth has seduced more than one poet and sold more than one sports car. for a certain group, the phrase forever young should be absolutely meaningless. that is, people who are actually young. we thought that was the case until we melt a pageant mom who says her 8-year-old complains about wrinkles so that mother injects her face with botox. here's lara spencer. >> reporter: in the world of kiddie beauty paymentants, it seems some parents will go to any extreme to give their child a winning edge. as seen in reality shows such as
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tlc's "toddlers & tiaras." one mom is now admitting to more than spray tans. >> a lot of moms are giving their kids botox. there's just certain things you have to do to get into the pageant and a lot of moms do it. >> reporter: and she is one of them. it's an issue so controversial that after all interview with carrie and her 8-year-old daughter brittany aired today on "good morning america" in which viewers saw this picture, abc news learned that the san francisco division of child protective services is now investigating the case. can you show me where? can you point on your face? >> sometimes i do it right here. >> reporter: what do you do it for? >> um, i don't know. >> reporter: well, do you do it because -- you see wrinkles or -- >> oh, yeah. like wrinkles and um i just, like don't, like, think wrinkles are nice -- >> reporter: what does it feel like to get botox? >> it hurts.
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and i get used to it. >> reporter: do you cry? >> a little. >> reporter: does it look better after you get botox? >> yeah, it looks way better. >> reporter: how? >> like beautiful, pretty. like -- >> reporter: the kind of nice worlds that should apply to a kid no matter what. carrie says her daughter sees flaws in her appearance. >> we talked about it. she didn't exactly ask me about it. >> reporter: my son will tell me he wants every xbox game. that doesn't mean you get it for them. >> i completely understand where you're coming from. i do botox myself. it's safe. >> reporter: but you're 34. >> i've been doing it for a long time. >> reporter: so you do it, you're the -- you administer is because you're an -- >> part time. >> reporter: it's not only botox. >> you also do waxing?
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>> reporter: yeah, i do that one time. how was that? >> it was super, super hard to deal with that. >> reporter: so why did you want to get waxed? >> because i just don't think it's lady-like to have hair on your legs. >> reporter: even when you're only 8? >> yeah. >> reporter: and how do you feel after you got waxed? did it feel -- were you glad you did it? was it worth the pain? >> yeah, it was worth the pain. >> reporter: do you worry about long-term effects of botox in her? 8 years old, i mean, if she decides to continue using it, she could be tugs for decades and decades. >> i've thought about long term. do i worry about it? i can't say i really worry about it no. >> reporter: but doctors we spoke to stress a child's face, unlike an adults, is still growing. and that injekting botox can paralyze the facial muscles and alter the child's appearance forever. and then there are the legal questions. where do you get the botox?
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>> i'd rather not, like, put that out there. i do have a trusted source where i get it. he is behind the doctor scene out here. >> reporter: so you got it illegally? >> no. >> reporter: i just wanted to show you some of these pictures. as you look at some of these pictures, do you believe that the mother is committing a crime? >> i think there's no question that this mother has no right to do this to her child. i think that they have to figure out a way to stop it. is it the criminal law? maybe. is it child protective services? more likely. but the reality is that the most important thing here is you got to stop it from happening. >> reporter: what about the psychological effects of all these procedures? >> what direction and supervision from a medical perspective is going on here? does this child's pediatrician
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know? >> reporter: this is a psychiatrist with the los angeles county department of children and family services. >> my initial reaction is to be a little bit in disbelief and a little bit horrified. then there's the psychological issues of the message that you're sending to this 8-year-old of how you feel her self-esteem, self-image should be guided and whether you're approving or disapproving of how she feels and looks in general. you're sending a lot of messages that you need to be clear about. >> reporter: but carrie insists these very adult procedures are just fine for her little girl. there are many in the medical community who say that administering botox this early can cause permanent psychological damage. >> do you see anything wrong with my daughter psychologically? i don't see anything wrong with her. i have a normal child. it's not breaking her spirit. i'm a great mother. and she's a happy kid. and that's the bottom line. >> "good morning america" will have much more on this story. our thanks to lara spencer for
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that. coming up next, he's the chef with an epicurean's pallet and sailor's vocabulary. [ male announcer ] finally. the place they've been searching for. staples. the one place that makes it easy to buy a new laptop. ♪ or get one fixed. ♪ with highly trained tech experts, staples makes trouble-shooting and repairing technology just the way you want it -- easy. easy to buy. easy to fix. easy to save. staples. that was easy. ♪ as a glimmer in your mind. ♪ it travels and your heart begins to race. ♪ and wherever you want to go -- you can get there.
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kitchen confidential. the 2000 best several by chef anthony bordain is the kind of memoir a lot of people would like to write. the problem is his life experience would kill most of them. he of course thrives to this day and recent signs have made us wonder if even he isn't mellowing just a bit. he joins our john berman for our
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series "on the town." >> ww. -- >> reporter: a successful career showing us amazing images of food. >> feels sort of testicular. >> reporter: yet he thinks people are spending too much time working. >> people who -- spend way too much time take pictures of food and not enough time having sex. i want two hot muss -- >> reporter: he spent two decades in the kitchen feeding people he thinks are eating too much. >> if you're at the point where you need help getting out of your car. if you're raising kids who are morbidly obese by the time they're 5 or 6. or if you're clogging an exit. now it's not a lifestyle choice. now it's a problem others will have to deal with. >> reporter: anthony bordain is famous for ferocious insults and four letter words. >> i don't think this guy gives a [ bleep ] -- >> reporter: yet -- have you
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gone soft? >> sure i, spend a lot of my time with my daughter watching nick jr. >> reporter: anthony is a 54-year-old walking contradiction. an extremely entertaining and thoughtful contradiction. >> let's just say there's a powerful herbal component to this pizza. >> reporter: he's the star of "no reservations" on the travel channel, now in its seventh season. he visits nearly 100 countries. >> what i don't want it to be is like all the other happy [ bleep ] travel and food shows. >> reporter: sure, he goes and he eats. >> i have to eat strategically. you have only so much real estate in there. >> reporter: but also he opines, he subverts. >> historically, when people from western europe and the new world first came here, they brought with them gifts of shame, typhoid and syphilis. how do we do what we do every week differently? how do we cause fear and confusion at the network, you know? that's what we're looking for. >> reporter: in classic form,
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while most food shows stick to italy and france, he's taken his to garbage dumps in nicaragua. >> seeing this, i don't -- not feeling so good about -- shoving food in my face. >> reporter: in post earthquake haiti -- >> we decide we'll buy the lady out. and we'll feed them. simple. fill the bellies of some cute kids. that good hearted expression of kindness. we all go back to our hotel feeling really good about ourselves, right? what happens is both predictable and a metaphor for what's wrong with so much well intentioned aid effort around the world. i try to avoid a social conscious. i try to avoid politics. i don't think that i have the gravitas, you know. i'm not, you know, i'm not a hard news reporter. i'm not looking to be. >> reporter: he's been subverting and contradicting since 2000 when he published the
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bombshell book "kitchen confidential." revealing behind the scenes expose of the new york restaurants where he'd been working as a chef for decades. >> all right, i don't get these special appetizers in 9 seconds my head is going to explode. >> reporter: he's collected a list of sort of enemies including vegetarians and -- what about rachael ray? >> listen, think the sooner she stops cooking, the happier we'll be. >> reporter: in fact, he has a built-in distaste for the growing mega industry of food tv. even there, there is a contradiction. >> even at its dumbest has been good for society as a whole in that it's raised awareness. people care more about what they eat. >> reporter: you say americans have a distorted relationship with food. >> well, for years we undervalued food. we didn't care about it anymore. that said, you know, the
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pendulum has going from not caring about it at all to obsessing about it, at least laughable degree. >> reporter: while it is easy to see he's against a lot, he squares there's plenty he is for. >> i'm for chefs who are cooking what they want to cook, their menu, their food, their way. being true to themselves. anyone who has chosen their own path and chosen to live in uncompromising way. >> reporter: lunchtime now? >> oh, yeah, you're going to like this. >> reporter: bordain is for places like this new york noodle joint. this isn't like some nine star restaurant here. this is a small little place. >> i think the dirty secret of a lot of chef, at whatever level they cook, is that they don't like to eat in their own restaurants. there's a sense of fine dining exhaustion. what i prefer to eat in one of the finest restaurants in the world or this on an average day? yeah, i prefer to eat here. i'm a chief date.
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what can i say? >> reporter: he's also for russ & daughters. this is as old school as it gets. people who know where they came from, know what the old good stuff is too. cheers. >> reporter: this is the not sucking part of your job. >> not much of my job does suck actually. >> reporter: yes, bordain admits his life is good. it seems to gnaw at him just a bit. is there a conflict between happy anthony and angry anthony? >> i think angry anthony is happy anthony to a lot of the time. you know, who doesn't like throwing a rock at someone they find loathsome? >> reporter: i'm john berman for "nightline" in new york. >> love that guy. john berman too. thanks to both. just ahead, put on your pants and go home. that's just one choice line from
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from bwi airport to new york newark for just $69 one way. is "camera crew" two words or one word? [ laughs ] you should know. you're the camera man. [ ding ] ten days ago nevada republican john ensign resigned, one day before he was supposed to testify about an affair with the wife of his best friend. today the senate ethics committee said if he hadn't quit, he could have been exp expelled and referred their findings to the justice department for possible criminal charges. my colleague cynthia fmcfadden has been reporting on the story, including the first network interview with ensign's former best friend, his chief of staff turned chief accuser. >> reporter: doug hampton was not only ensign's best friend and chief of staff, he thought he were brothers in christ. when we talkeded to him in the fall of 2009, he was a man in
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despair. you lost your job. >> lost my job. >> reporter: lost your best friend. >> lost my best friend. >> reporter: and nearly lost your wife. >> nearly lost my wife. >> reporter: it was a 20-year-old friendship. here they are on vacation together. so close they'd become family. but during christmas of 2007, the friendship turned into a nightmare when hampton intercept add text message ensign had sent his wife cindy who was also working for the senator. what's it say? >> how wonderful it is. can't believe it's like a kid. scared but exciting. >> reporter: do you know instantly? >> oh, i -- i have a little out of body experience. i confront john. i think he genuinely believes i'm going to knock him out. >> reporter: according to hampton on christmas eve, there was a confrontation at the ensign home with both couples and all their children present. >> kids know.
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we know. ten of us meet at john and darlene's. and i say, what are we going to do? are we going to destroy each other's lives? is this it? oh, gosh, no, no, no. it's just the biggest mistake we've ever made. we do not want this. john cries like a kid. puts his head in his hands and cries like a little boy. >> reporter: remorse, you hear remorse? >> yeah, panic. >> reporter: hampton says after he and his wife cindy were fired, senator ensign, still trying to keep his affair with cindy secret, made hampton go through yet another embarrassing charade. >> he called me and said, you need to come back here. i need to throw you a party. if you don't come back here and let me throw you a party, people will suspect something. >> reporter: he gave you a going away party? >> absolutely. and a gift. >> reporter: days later hamptons received what ensign now claims is another gift. this check for $96,000 made out
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to doug, cindy and two of their children. the shock is from ensign's father, mike ensign, a wealthy mogul. a family spokesman denying a payoff called it, quote, a pattern of generosity, made out of concern for the well-being of longtime family friends during a difficult time. >> pattern of generosity? okay, listen, we realize our son's having an affair with your wife, maybe some money will help. it's ridiculous. >> reporter: is it crystal clear to you that that $96,000 was, in fact, severance and not a gift? >> crystal clear. >> reporter: the ensign family says the gift complied with tax rules. but if the check was indeed severance, senator ensign may violated campaign finance laws by not revealing it. >> the senate cannot punish someone who's no longer serving but their move today ensures that investigations of ensign will continu

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